My Morning Jacket live

My Morning Jacket
Opening Acts: Catfish Haven and The Slip
The Riviera- 11.24.06

Setlist
One Big Holiday
What A Wonderful Man
The Way He Sings
Off The Record
The Dark
It Beats 4 U
Wordless Chorus
Phone Went West
Lay Low
Lowdown
Golden
Dondante
Run Thru
They Ran
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Bermuda Highway*
At Dawn*
Just One Thing*
Gideon*
Mahgeeta
Anytime

*performed with Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra


Well, My Morning Jacket had already won me over when they released Z, an album that was selected as the #1 release to come out last year, and they continued to impress me when I had the opportunity to see them at Lollapalooza this past August. Now, after seeing them for a full two hour show, I have to say that if you still haven't hopped on the bandwagon, do join in now because you're about to witness something special. My Morning Jacket's performance was astounding to say the least, the band's energy was there from the beginning and Jim James' stage presence was as large as his skeleton platform boots. The band started off with my personal favorite song of theirs "One Big Holiday" and kept the pace throughout, with highlights including "Off the Record," "Wordless Chorus," "Phone Went West." and "Dondante." Performing the first half of the encore with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra was also a treat, although the Riviera's shoddy acoustics at times rendered the orchestra inaudible. Also interesting was how well the band performed all of their old songs. On album, some of the material doesn't stand out at all, but in hearing them live, they're performed with such confidence that new life is brought to each of those songs-- most notably with the aforementioned "Phone Went West." Where this is most apparent is with frontman Jim James, whose tin-can vocals on each of the pre-Z albums are hardly representative of what he can do live. On each song that he performed, his voice was just as good if not better than what it was on album, and his passionate falsettos are simply chilling. After seeing their continuing growth and maturity in just these past two years alone, it's exciting to think what lies ahead for the Kentucky-based group. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and purchase their concert tickets while they're still cheap, or at least buy their latest album.